Author
Topic: Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Read 4363 times)

I watched this newly released DVD this evening; the film, also known as They Call Her One Eye (which I think is a better title), was, along with Lady Snowblood, one of Tarantino's big influences on Kill Bill. The lead character obviously is directly referenced with Elle Driver.

It's pretty interesting. It's a Swedish film (and apparently was banned in its home country), dubbed into English. It's not really all that gory (save for one ocular injury that puts everything Lucio Fulci has ever done to shame), but it does have graphic hardcore sex scenes. You can tell that the lead actress didn't participate -- they cut from closeups of her face to closeups of the penetration, and never the two do meet. It's not at all pleasant, since the girl is basically a sex slave being degraded by perverted customers (upon whom she later enacts revenge, after taking some quick kung fu lessons)

The script is pretty standard exploitation stuff, and it's not well written at all. But the production values are pretty high, the direction is frequently really good, and the last 20 minutes are really cool, with some strong Jodorowsky-ish imagery. Sometimes it even feels a bit Bergman-ish. The fight scenes are particularly artsy -- they're shot at somewhere around 96 frame per second, and that speed is maintained for the each sequence in its entirety.

Anyway, worth checking out, if you like exploitation movies and don't mind the hardcore material.

How could you be into exploitation films and not like the hardcore material?

Logged

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

This is accidentally good. The flaws in logic (kung fu training on days off from whoring), style (the slo-mo is so slow it's goes from bad and forced to wonderful and hypnotic), and common deceny (the eye shot, the hardcore inserts-- especially... um... the back door one) somehow elevate this film from complete crap to something memorable and, dare I say, fascinating.

Kudos to Synapse for digging this film up and putting out a decent dvd with some hilarious extras (the 'double feature' trailer is a howler). This is one of those movies that I think I'll show to unsuspecting friends just to see the shock and horror.

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

I know it was said a while ago, but I'd reinforce this isn't worth a blind buy. Cult films are unpredictable with tastes...

However... man, I love this movie. In so many scenes I'm wondering both WHY and HOW did they do particular shots. What the fuck is up with the subtitles? I think almost every single subtitle doesn't pair up with what's being said in the dubbing. I understand things being lost in translation, but couldn't there have been better communication between the people responsible for those two things? Sometimes, they'd say things dubbed, and the subtitles might suggest an entire different phrase. For instance, the creepy goateed man speaks to her "I'll bet you can't think of one good reason why I shouldn't drive you into town" and the subtitle says "Can you think of a reason why you shouldn't get in this car and let me give you a ride to town?" and she shakes her head which seems to respond better with the subtitles than with the dubbing. But then when one of the prostitute girls is talking to One Eye, she looks relatively happy and says "It hurts the most at first, you get used to it" and then follows with "He's really not so bad" but the subtitles say "That horrible bastard." which directly conflicts with the tone of voice and how she looks.

The final execution was utterly classic, though.

Logged

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye